What You Can Learn About Marketing from All This Godforsaken Snow
There is no doubt about it: snow days don’t mean what they used to.
Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time shoveling and pushing my snow-blower. I keep forgetting to put on my iPod so instead I have been letting my mind process through endless thoughts about current marketing projects, my client’s needs, upcoming campaigns and marketing concepts in general. I know that sounds slightly obsessive. I suppose that’s just “how I roll” or perhaps “how I shovel.”
During this time I began to notice some basic marketing concepts staring back at me from all this heavy wet white stuff that I was shuffling around in.
PROBLEM: THE PLOW = THE COMPETITION
SOLUTION: BETTER COMPETITIVE DEFENSE THROUGH IMPROVED TACTICS
We all have competitors and we’re all trying to take market share from them. Or, at the very least, we’re trying figure out where they are and what they are up to. In my case, it seemed like the harder I worked, the faster my competition came along and dumped a ton of fresh new competitive product that I had to work through. I would shovel and shovel and shovel and then I would hear it. The rumbling engine of my competition: The DPW’s Plow! It was as if he was deliberately waiting until I got ahead before he came along and knocked me back down. It got to the point that I was faced with giving up and trying again after I regrouped or improving my tactics and trying something new. That’s what I did. I took a step back and thought through the issue until I came up with a viable, planned out solution that I could test and improve upon. What did I do? I built a “snow wall” at the end of my driveway. I used three folding picnic tables I had in my garage. I lined them up end to end, tilted them onto their sides and held them in place with a series of sandbags. The result was that it blocked my competition from setting me back any further in the work I had done. The ROI was obvious when you consider that time equals money and the plow equals my competition. Victory was mine!
PROBLEM: USING THE WRONG TOOL FOR THE RIGHT JOB
SOLUTION: FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU NEED BEFORE YOU START THE JOB
Ever tried using a kid’s play shovel to clean a walkway? I don’t recommend it.
PROBLEM: DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS
SOLUTION: SOLID PLANNING REQUIRES STRATEGY BEFORE TACTICS
It’s so easy to just dig in and start shoveling or snow blowing without thinking about exactly how you should do it. Whether you have a long or short driveway, you should really plan out your strategy before you start tactically executing on the work. It’s the old proactive vs. reactive struggle we all deal with day to day. Do you spray and pray or target and plan? Let me explain what I mean. I’m relatively new to the world of snow blowers. I’m used to just shoveling in straight lines until the work is done. But that doesn’t always apply to snow blowing because you have to factor for where you want to throw the snow. What I noticed was that I kept throwing the snow over places I had already cleared. Once I got better at strategically targeting, I got better at succeeding and closing the gap between start and finish.
PROBLEM: NOT KNOWING WHAT’S COMING NEXT
SOLUTION: RESEARCH IS TIME WELL SPENT
I didn’t just go buy a snow blower. I researched what was the best tool for the job. I don’t just wait to see what happens with a snow storm. I get on all the major weather and news sites and stay informed about what is coming and what the estimated impact will be to where I live, work and play. I don’t just wait until the storm is over. I get out there and attack it proactively so I can stay ahead and be ready to deal with whatever comes at me. Nowadays we have unprecedented access to a wealth of knowledge accessible via the internet. Take the time, do the research and you will be better off for it time and time again.
PROBLEM: TRYING TO DO EVERYTHING YOURSELF
SOLUTION: BETTER UTILIZATION OF EXPERIENCED RESOURCES
If you work as part of a team – be it direct or segmented – you really shouldn’t try to do everything yourself. Why would you want to? Multiple minds are greater than one, right? If you don’t know how to do something, ask someone. If you want to try something new, see if someone else has already tried it. If you’re struggling with a new tool or tactic, see if someone else can lend a helping hand. Maybe I’m just a typical guy or it’s the stubborn Scotsman inside me but I’ve had to learn to ask for help when I need it. This morning, I could not get the snow blower to run. It would turn on, run for a moment and then die. I was stumped. I’m great with computers but terrible with machines and tools. I tried starting it over and over again without success. I could see my neighbor (and good friend) occasionally looking over at what I was doing. I should have asked for help. I admit it. A little while later, he came over, leaned down and without saying a word he hit the fuel switch on the side of the blower. It immediately turned on and stayed on. Right then and there I realized that I should have just asked him in the first place. When you have access to the resources you need, you need to use those resources to get the job done right.
I could go on about how my cars are like sales reps (make sure they can get moving and keep them fueled with leads), how the snow is like customers (they’re all over you and expect you to know how to deal with them appropriately) and how the wind is like economic change (you need to be willing to change your direction in order to succeed!)
But I think you get the point.
OK, that’s all for now. I’ve got to suit up and get back out there.